1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to litter or bedding for commercial poultry raising facilities, along with a process for improving and enhancing the commercial viability of these types of facilities. The invention also provides a valuable and economically attractive use of dried citrus peel byproduct or waste, including components thereof, for use as the litter or bedding in commercial poultry raising operations. Citrus byproduct can be used alone or in combination with traditional bedding components. The citrus byproduct improves the performance of the litter or bedding and significantly reduces the occurrence of poultry imperfections and enhances bird health and feed efficiency.
2. Description of Related Art
Current commercial-scale poultry raising operations house the poultry in confined spaces. Floors of those spaces traditionally are covered with bedding litter material. Feed and water is made available to the chicks so they can mature into adult birds which typically are intended as a food source. Generally, these are high volume facilities, and efficiency and cost control are extremely important. While the majority of these operations are for chicken production, other poultry can be included, such as turkey, ducks, geese and less common poultry as well.
In a typical commercial operation of this type, the poultry remains on the litter or bedding for the duration of its stay within the confined location. Under these circumstances, excretion and feces from the birds collect on the litter bed throughout the birds' stay within the confined space. While the birds remain under these conditions, the volume of bird droppings increases throughout this confinement period. Under these conditions, conventional bedding litter materials tend to deteriorate, and their effectiveness in functioning to reduce contact between the birds and their droppings is severely tested. Many litter materials fail in their intended function, especially as the time during which the birds live on the litter increases. Furthermore, most litter materials do not provide any substantial active components to counteract the negative effects of the bird excrement.
Poor litter performance is undesirable. It can allow for contact between the birds and deleterious droppings components and/or resultant products such as ammonia. Used litter also becomes seeded with pathogens and fungi. Parasites, for example, can be found in poultry pen litter. Moist conditions typically contribute significantly to forming or providing a breeding ground for these types of negative litter quality factors, as noted in Lacy, “Litter Quality and Broiler Performance,” The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, Athens, Ga., 1991, incorporated by reference hereinto. In some commercial poultry operations, litter is reused for multiple growing cycles, creating even greater challenges for the bedding litter.
Rehberger U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,333, incorporated by reference hereinto, recognizes these types of problems and their manifestation as foot pad lesions, breast blisters, and air sac infections, for example. This prior art patent proposes a biological solution to these litter problems by treating poultry litter with a composition for producing a certain blend of bacteria. This proposed type of treatment adds cost, can be perceived as a non-organic approach, and does not address the inherent deficiencies of conventional litter material itself.
Typically preferred litter material for poultry houses is a cellulosic litter from woody sources such as pine wood shavings and saw dust. As noted in the Lacy article, other proposed litter materials include various other cellulosic and woody materials, each having disadvantages as noted in that article. Included in this suggested litter material are hardwood shavings and sawdust, pine or hardwood chips, processed paper, rice hulls, peanut hulls, sugarcane pomace (bagasse), crushed corn cobs, and chopped straw, hay or corn stover.
While poultry house litter or bedding has long been recognized as falling far short of solving many problems associated with raising poultry under economically efficient but confining conditions which are typically characteristic of commercial poultry raising operations, a satisfactory and very economical solution still is needed.
Previously proposed approaches include adding expensive active agents to conventional bedding materials. While these may be useful in treating particular problems such as pathogens, they do so with added cost and require added worker time and/or they often do not address the larger overall issue of bed deterioration. Active agent addition typically is required when the same litter material is used for multiple growing cycles, usually being incorporated during turning or fluffing of the previously used litter right in the pen. At times, non-organic agents are proposed for these purposes and for either fresh or recycled litter.
A particularly desirable solution would be to be able to use an inexpensive natural source for litter or bedding components or as a litter material itself in order to address these types of long-standing problems. Effective materials which do not require processing to be suitable for use in fresh or recycled bedding litter are recognized herein as being of value in this regard.